Inbox Zero for Zimbra

Inbox Zero for Zimbra implements Merlin Mann's productivity process as a mail message toolbar. This zimlet lets you cruise through your Inbox in record time, simplifying common tasks down to a single button click!

The heart of Inbox Zero, as defined by Merlin Mann, is to perform one of five simple operations on each piece of email in your Inbox with the goal of keeping your Inbox empty at all times. These five operations are:

Delete

Delegate

Respond

Defer

Do

Inbox Zero for Zimbra expands on this concept while maintaining a simple list of only five actions on the mail message toolbar. For users that prefer to never throw anything away, messages can be archived instead of deleted; you can delegate responsibility for an email to someone else and automatically followup later; you can defer messages for different durations; etc.

The complete list of Inbox Zero for Zimbra actions are:

Delete or Archive

Delegate or Followup

Respond or Respond All

Defer 1 Hour, Defer 1 Day, or Defer 1 Week

Create a Task ("Do")

Try Inbox Zero today! You'll never look at your Inbox the same way again!

Notes:

Inbox Zero for Zimbra works best if your Inbox is sorted by message, not by conversation. This may feel very limiting at first but once you start using Inbox Zero you won't need conversations because there is (hopefully) never more than a dozen messages in your Inbox at any time.

To view your Inbox by messages instead of conversations, go to the Mail application and pull down the View menu from the toolbar. Select "By Message" and you're done! The client will automatically save your setting when you logout.

If your Inbox already contains thousands (if not tens of thousands) of emails already and it seems too overwhelming to start using Inbox Zero, there's a simple solution: start by archiving everything in your Inbox. This helps you start fresh and you can always go to the archive folder and process important messages later.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to archive your Inbox to get started using Inbox Zero:

Go to the Mail application.

Select a message, any message.

Pull down the Delete button from the Inbox Zero for Zimbra toolbar above the message reading pane and select Archive. The first time you perform an Inbox Zero action, the zimlet will automatically create a couple of folders, including an "Archived" folder. The selected message will be moved to this folder.

Shift-click the select-all checkbox in the message list header. This selects all the messages in the current view and all messages that match the current search but are not yet in the view.

Click the move button from the message list toolbar.

Select the Inbox/Archived folder and hit OK.

Wait while the system moves everything in your Inbox to the archive. This may take a while. If you are impatient, open another browser tab or window and load a separate copy of the client to continue work while you wait.

Reviews

Enterprise Deployment

I'd love for everyone in our company to view the video. Excellent discussion on how to use email in a more organized fashion whether or not using this zimlet.I'm using it with Firefox 3.6.10 (WindowsXP and Linux - MDV 2009) with no problem so far. My issue is with IE7&8. It lets the user take action on one(1) email and then the tool bar goes blank. It comes back if you log out and back in. I turned off all other zimlets to make sure their wasn't a conflict but still same issue. One more reason to stick to FF but I've got some users who won't. Any thoughts as to what my issue might be. I'm using ZCS 6.0.7Rois

Excellent productivity tool, could do with one more feature...

How about the ability to defer to a specific date?If it's a Monday or Tuesday, and I get an e-mail about something relating to a job I'm doing on Thursday, I'd like to be able to defer it to that date. Is that possible?

Very Good Zimlet

Only if it worked. Unfortunately it doesn't. I still have it installed and turned on just so I can right click on an email and convert it to a task or an appointment. I noticed that I don't have those options when I turn off the zimlet.

'Archive' and 'Create Task' do not work

By: samuelfribeiro on on 4/16/12 for version 1.2_6.0.0.20100901.112857

Hi I'm using Zimba Desktop 7.1.4 GA, but when I click in Create task button, nothing happens.I have downloaded Inbox Zero for Zimbra version 1.2_6.0.0.20100901.112857.Could you help me?

Same issue with "archive" and "defer"

I'm having the same issue as previous users - the archive, defer, and create task options do not seem to have any effect. I do have the archived and deferred folders created by the extension but the only action that really seems to do anything is delete.I am running Zimbra Desktop 7.1.2 on a Mac. I know that 7.x is not listed as officially supported for this extension but I'd love to see it working.

This Zimlet will help you.

Archive & Defer non-functional

AndyC, I am also unable to get emails to move to folders by using the Archive, or defer buttons. The Zimlet did correctly make "Archived and Deferred" folders under my inbox when I first selected to archive an email. I'm running Zimbra Desktop 2.0.1, version 1.2 of the Inbox Zero for Zimbra zimlet on Mac OS X 10.6.6 connecting to a Zimbra 6 server. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or would like me to assist with any testing/info gathering off-line.

Problems with Undo Send

When this extension is active alongside the "Undo Send" zimlet, the post-message actions don't seem to work---e.g. "Delegate" will forward the message as expected, Undo Send will delay the message going out, but it won't properly archive the message after the response has gone out.It would be nice if these two extensions could play nice together, since they're both so useful.

The "archive" button does not work

for me on ZD 2 : the same behaviour as described by @ThomS and others. I am using version 1.2 (downloaded and installed it today) of this zimlet. As such, I end up dragging messages to the newly created Inbox -> Archived folder. Not very exciting, now is it? :) -- Philip

Great extension - also having problems with the buttons

Hi Andy,I wanted to write in and say I also really like the extension, but that I'm also having the problem with the buttons.I read an earlier post that I didn't altogether understand - "After deploying the new version, please flush your server zimlet cache using "zmprov flushCache zimlet", flush your browser cache, and reload".I'm a bit of a tech novice - if you have the time, could you explain this some more?Thanks!Martin

Create task and Archive do not work in ZD2

As mentioned, the create task and archive selections don't work. The folders are created, but selecting archive and creating a task don't do anything. From reading about this zimlet and watching the video, this would be an extremely useful and necessary app. for any business. Could someone please check on this for us--We would like to start using it as soon as possible. drkingZD2.0(10580)Mac OSX 10.6.4

Would love it but but 'Archive' and 'Create Task' do not work in ZD 2

Great Zimlet but the issue with 'Archive' and 'Create Task' do not seem to be solved. It is creating the folder on the various accounts but when clicked on 'Archive' nothing happens. I also cannot create a task, or 'defer,' or 'follow-up.' Any update would be highly appreciated as this Zimlet has excellent potential.

Reading Pane Off > no "inbox zero" : a feature ?

hi,thank you for this useful zimlet. Testing it on 6.08-os-debian5_64, I noticed that it does not appear with the "Reading pane off".If this is the way it should behave, a mention in the description could be useful(sorry, if it is already mentioned and i overlooked that)anton

A few remarks

Very interesting zimlet. ThanksWould you explain me the difference between delegate and followup.I used delegate and followup and couldn't see the difference.When you defer a message for one hour for example, the reception hour and date are correct in the message but the date and hour displayed in the message list are the date and hour the message has been deferred (I apologize for my poor english). It migth be interesting to display two columns, one for the reception date and one for the defererred date.I had not been able to create a task from a message.You must notice that I use ZCS in french ant that I translated .properties (not below the point you indicated).I installed and uninstalled the zimlet several times and now when I click archive the message is still in Inbox. Defer works properly.Feel free to contact me.

Re: Like the toolbar, but 'Archive' and 'Create Task' do not work

@ThomS I'm sorry to hear that it is not working for you. A few of the over 160 people that have now downloaded the zimlet have reported similar issues. I have not been able to recreate the problem yet on my end but will continue to work with the few users that are affected to try to find a solution for you.

Like the toolbar, but 'Archive' and 'Create Task' do not work

Overall I like the extra toolbar this zimlet creates. However,
several functions do not work properly at this time (on our Zimbra
installation at least). Both the 'Archive' and 'Create Task' buttons do
not work. You can press them, but nothing happens.Another 'bug'
is that when you defer an email it changes the time of the 'delivered
on' time of the e-mail. This is something you don't want (at least I
don't want it). It also stays in the deferred box, and does not give you
a reminder of any kind after the time to which you deferred the e-mail
has elapsed.It would be great if you can somehow attach some kind of (calender?) reminder to a deferred e-mail message.If these bugs can be resolved this zimlet certainly has potential.@developer: Feel free to contact me if you would like more detailed info about the herementioned bugs.

Older Versions:

Version 1.1

Inbox Zero for Zimbra implements Merlin Mann's productivity process as a mail message toolbar. This zimlet lets you cruise through your Inbox in record time, simplifying common tasks down to a single button click!

The heart of Inbox Zero, as defined by Merlin Mann, is to perform one of five simple operations on each piece of email in your Inbox with the goal of keeping your Inbox empty at all times. These five operations are:

Delete

Delegate

Respond

Defer

Do

Inbox Zero for Zimbra expands on this concept while maintaining a simple list of only five actions on the mail message toolbar. For users that prefer to never throw anything away, messages can be archived instead of deleted; you can delegate responsibility for an email to someone else and automatically followup later; you can defer messages for different durations; etc.

The complete list of Inbox Zero for Zimbra actions are:

Delete or Archive

Delegate or Followup

Respond or Respond All

Defer 1 Hour, Defer 1 Day, or Defer 1 Week

Create a Task ("Do")

Try Inbox Zero today! You'll never look at your Inbox the same way again!

Notes:

Inbox Zero for Zimbra works best if your Inbox is sorted by message, not by conversation. This may feel very limiting at first but once you start using Inbox Zero you won't need conversations because there is (hopefully) never more than a dozen messages in your Inbox at any time.

To view your Inbox by messages instead of conversations, go to the Mail application and pull down the View menu from the toolbar. Select "By Message" and you're done! The client will automatically save your setting when you logout.

If your Inbox already contains thousands (if not tens of thousands) of emails already and it seems too overwhelming to start using Inbox Zero, there's a simple solution: start by archiving everything in your Inbox. This helps you start fresh and you can always go to the archive folder and process important messages later.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to archive your Inbox to get started using Inbox Zero:

Go to the Mail application.

Select a message, any message.

Pull down the Delete button from the Inbox Zero for Zimbra toolbar above the message reading pane and select Archive. The first time you perform an Inbox Zero action, the zimlet will automatically create a couple of folders, including an "Archived" folder. The selected message will be moved to this folder.

Shift-click the select-all checkbox in the message list header. This selects all the messages in the current view and all messages that match the current search but are not yet in the view.

Click the move button from the message list toolbar.

Select the Inbox/Archived folder and hit OK.

Wait while the system moves everything in your Inbox to the archive. This may take a while. If you are impatient, open another browser tab or window and load a separate copy of the client to continue work while you wait.